I won’t even go into possible causation of using violent and bloody video games or viewing gruesome and gory Hollywood films. After all, those are protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, & to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

People have the freedom to choose whether or not to purchase and use those products, and the market will determine their ultimate success and availability.

Housed in the lobby of the historic building in which Stephen now works is the bronze sculpture “The Signing of the Constitution.”

But just as we are endowed by God with this unalienable right, so too are citizens called to cherish and governments to protect the Second Amendment.

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep & bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Our right to self-defense, whether that be to abate tyranny or to protect your family and home, is just as important as our right of unfettered speech, no matter how politically incorrect it may be deemed by the easily offended.

My counter to the draconian, anti-gun hysteria is best described by the words of two famous Jamaican musicians.

I’d rather be a free man in my grave than living as a puppet or a slave.
— Jimmy Cliff

Better to die fighting for freedom than be a prisoner all the days of your life. — Bob Marley

The most inarguable lesson of this whole tragedy is that if a bad guy is hell bent on hurting people, he will find a way to do it. Hence, disarming law-abiding citizens will do nothing but increase their risk to life and limb.

This can be evidenced in the mass knifing that took place in a Chinese school, wounding 22 kids on the very same day as Sandy Hook. And as you know, Communist China has extremely strict gun control.

The “Freedom Pledge” plaque is located on the outside of the Jefferson Standard Building on the corner of Elm & Market streets.

Interestingly, you’ll see near the end of the article that knives were also the weapon of choice in seven other Chinese stabbing sprees in 2010, killing a total of 20 people and wounding 50. Yes, these mass killers are insane, but they are also resourceful.

For example, in 1964, a man armed with an insecticide sprayer converted into a flamethrower killed 11 and injured 22 in a school in Cologne, Germany. In 1927, a man used dynamite to bomb a school and then explode his shrapnel-filled truck outside the building to kill 45 and wound 58 in Bath Township, Michigan.

In the wake of the current tragedy, it is God’s grace alone that helps me deal with the acts of such evil men, as well as the illogical, agenda-driven, emotion-based rantings of those in the media after the fact. (Not participating in the cultural cesspool that is Facebook has also helped.)

Case in point: A recent article in The Nation. As you can see, the author worships at the shrine of collectivism (public schools), blaming individualism (the homeschooling movement) for society’s ills, thus, setting the stage for massacres like Sandy Hook.

On this seal above the elevators in the JSB, Liberty holds the state constitution & faces the goddess Plenty. The motto “Esse Quam Videri” means “To Be Rather Than To Seem” & the date @ top is especially important, since it refers to the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence, which was allegedly the first such declaration adopted during the American Revolution.

If that weren’t bad enough, she goes way beyond the miseducation and misunderstanding of what it means to live in a Republic (and what the government’s role is therein), or the predictably intolerant and anti-choice stances of America’s Left.

What she is preaching is authoritarianism. She and her statist ilk want to impose their view of social-justice morality on the masses through government edict and anyone who gets in their way is, simply put, the enemy.

“Let us do all the talking, thinking and law making, and you just shut up and be a good little subject” is really the end game. Who knew fascism was back in fashion? So much for live and let live.

As a Christian, I cannot let my emotions be manipulated by such evil and oppression. I have to pray that the misguided will come to their senses, and come back to embracing liberty, which I truly believe is not only at every American’s core, but is something fundamental that God places within every human heart.

So that’s where the grace comes in. And the “good coffee” part — which is my effort at not allowing the haters to steal my joy – will be expanded upon in the next blog, which I promise will be light and fun, and full of cute photos.

Also above the elevators in the JSB is the “Signing of the Declaration of Independence” in marble. The reminders of liberty are everywhere!

And as a mother trying to deal with increasing unrest and social division, and the ramifications such intolerance may have on my children, I’ll leave you with the prescient words of the brilliant and strong-willed Abigail Adams, the first Second Lady and second First Lady of the U.S. (and a homeschooler to boot).

The following is an excerpt from a letter written to her 9-year-old son, John Quincy Adams. She has sent him on a long journey to France to be with his father, John Adams, and explains why the separation from his mom’s loving arms is necessary.

These are times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed. Would Cicero have shone so distinguished an orator if he had not been roused, kindled, and inflamed by the tyranny of Catiline, Verres, and Mark Anthony? The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. All history will convince you of this, and that wisdom and penetration are the fruit of experience, not the lessons of retirement and leisure. Great necessities call out great virtues. When a mind is raised and animated by scenes that engage the heart, then those qualities, which would otherwise lie dormant, wake into life and form the character of the hero and the statesman. War, tyranny, and desolation are the scourges of the Almighty, and ought no doubt to be deprecated. Yet it is your lot, my son, to be an eyewitness of these calamities in your own native land, and, at the same time, to owe your existence among a people who have made a glorious defence of their invaded liberties, and who, aided by a generous and powerful ally, with the blessing of Heaven, will transmit this inheritance to ages yet unborn. — Abigail Adams, 1780